Today's been a bit of a marathon cooking day. A couple of weeks ago, we were given 'Herman' by a friend ... Let me explain. He arrived as a rather unpromising pot of brown, yeasty-smelling gunk together with some instructions. Over the course of about 10 days, we had to stir him as he gradually expanded, then at various points, we had to feed him. This involved stirring in quantities of milk, flour and sugar. Finally by today, he had expanded to fill a large mixing bowl and it was time to divide him up. The idea is to divide the mix into 5 and give four of the new little Herman's away to friends to start the whole process over again. You then use the fifth pot of mixture to make a cake by adding more ingredients (more flour, sugar, eggs, oil, flavourings, nuts and apple).
I've never been particularly good at baking and don't really own proper cake tins, so I poured the resulting mix into a loaf tin and popped it in the oven. After an hour (as per the instructions), it was still distinctly sticky in the middle so I left it a bit longer. When it finally came out, it was a probably a bit crunchier round the edges than it should've been. It didn't look wildly promising, but actually a slice with a cup of tea wasn't too bad. No idea who we're going to pass the remaining 'Hermans' onto though!
Next I cooked up some bulgar wheat. Along with the spinach, the parsley on the terrace is getting a bit out of control and the most obvious use for it was some tabbouleh. I'm not actually a big fan of too much parsley myself, but Tris loves it, so I made him up a big bowl to take to work for his lunch. I then had a bit of the plain bulgar wheat with some salad and the leftover, cold lamb for my lunch.
By the time it got to thinking about dinner, I was a bit out of culinary inspiration, so I turned to my usual favourite, Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. For 21st June, he has a recipe for harissa chicken, which quite appealed, so I went with it. You mix up some yoghurt with harissa paste and a bit of olive oil, then use it to coat some chicken thigh fillets. Then you simply grill them and sprinkle over some mint. Very simple, but it came out great with a big pile of green veg (peas, broad beans and asparagus).
Next I cooked up some bulgar wheat. Along with the spinach, the parsley on the terrace is getting a bit out of control and the most obvious use for it was some tabbouleh. I'm not actually a big fan of too much parsley myself, but Tris loves it, so I made him up a big bowl to take to work for his lunch. I then had a bit of the plain bulgar wheat with some salad and the leftover, cold lamb for my lunch.
By the time it got to thinking about dinner, I was a bit out of culinary inspiration, so I turned to my usual favourite, Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. For 21st June, he has a recipe for harissa chicken, which quite appealed, so I went with it. You mix up some yoghurt with harissa paste and a bit of olive oil, then use it to coat some chicken thigh fillets. Then you simply grill them and sprinkle over some mint. Very simple, but it came out great with a big pile of green veg (peas, broad beans and asparagus).
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